Examine the causes of social inequality. Explore the connections between politics, economics and popular culture. Seek alternatives and study the history of movements for change.

Political Economy is a social science that asks, “Who has what?” “Who does what kinds of work?” and “How did it get to be that way?”

At Evergreen, classes in Political Economy study the ways that the US and global economies have been organized and reorganized. Students ask how systems of economic and political power operate and how they are changed. Perhaps you want to understand the relationship between democracy and capitalism. Maybe you want to understand how social movements have challenged domination based on race, social class and gender. If so, you’ll find this approach rewarding.

At Evergreen, you can study the history of empires, past and present, in structuring the global economy. You’ll examine food systems and agriculture in the US and internationally. You’ll look at the role that mass media plays in our social relationships. You’ll learn how social change has occurred in the past so you can be a more effective agent of change. Finally, you can explore alternative visions for economies and societies that promote justice and environmental sustainability.

It is easier to criticize contemporary capitalism for its failures than to develop feasible alternatives and a strategy to get there. We will explore and critically analyze diverse social movements and visions that seek to create more just global and national societies. International institutions such as the WTO, IMF and World Bank promote “free market” and “free trade” capitalist globalization which open up countries to multinational corporations and impose Western development models. In the past few decades, many alternative visions have developed within the global justice movement and have been renewed through more recent “occupy” and anti-austerity movements in Europe (Greece and Spain), the United States and the Global South. They draw upon historical precedents and alternatives to capitalism, from anti-colonial and socialist movements to the new left, situationist and anarchist movements after 1968.We will analyze existing capitalist globalization and current U.S. capitalism and then look at how diverse social movements and thinkers have formulated alternative visions for creating just, liberatory, democratic and sustainable societies. We will explore different and sometimes clashing alternatives to national and global capitalism that have developed around the world. These will include those influenced by socialist, Marxist, anarchist, anti-authoritarian, ecological, feminist and perspectives emanating from the Global South. We will research and evaluate case studies of existing and possible alternatives from Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, and those derived from cooperatives, intentional communities, participatory socialism and eco-feminist alternatives in the U.S. and elsewhere. We will analyze alternatives to NAFTA and other “free trade” agreements such as ALBA, and global visions of equity and justice, including climate justice. We will also look at strategies, ideologies and visions of alternative societies in the “occupy” and other current movements.The program will include a focus on theoretical debates over strategies and goals of movements, including debates about the role of states, the limitations of reforms, insurrectionist visions and the role of pre-figurative strategies and of creating alternative communities that bypass political institutions. We will pay special attention to the conditions facing women in their changing roles in the global system of production and consumption, ecological concerns and the struggles of indigenous peoples for survival and self-determination.Students will engage these topics and case studies through lectures, seminar discussion, group projects, films and guest speakers. Our activities will include theoretical reading, analytic and critical thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches, and imagining and formulating fresh views of the facts and possible futures of capitalist globalization.

The Basque Country is an ancient country the size of the Puget Sound region that sits between France and Spain. In this class we will explore Basque history, culture, and socio political movements including the Basque conflict. We will immerse ourselves in the prehistoric Basque language (Euskera) and learn about Mondragon, the largest worker owned industrial cooperative system in the world. Music, literature, art and gastronomy will be experienced and discussed in the class led by a native Basque from Mondragon.

Success in international business and community development requires a certain level of proficiency in international trade, globalization, and intercultural communication. This course provides basic knowledge and skill training for potential entrepreneurs and managers in the areas of international business, communications, and finance. This course focuses on the international and community development aspect of business management, namely international trade, marketing, intercultural communication, globalization, and international organizations.Students in this course are expected to complete 10 hours of community service or in-service learning with a local business or community-based organization.

In the late 1700s, Europeans saw the Caribbean as one vast sugar plantation controlled by French, English, Spanish and Dutch colonial powers. The insatiable need for labor decimated local populations who were replaced by millions of African slaves and, after emancipation, indentured labor from East India and China. Historically, this represents the largest forced mixing of cultures in the world; the result was a host of new Caribbean identities, all developing in the context of the political, economic and ideological structures imposed by Europeans. Today, the identities and cultural expressions of all Caribbean peoples continue to be shaped by the colonial legacy and the rise of post-colonial consciousness. Thinkers like José Martí ("
América"), Aimé Césaire (
), and Frantz Fanon (
) exposed the negative effects of colonial subjugation and envisioned liberatory processes of social change. Despite the region's shared colonial and post-colonial legacies, a sense of a common Caribbean identity should not be exaggerated. As Jean Casimir writes, the Caribbean is simultaneously united and divided. A Guadeloupian may be more connected psychologically and physically to Dakar, or even Paris, than she is to Puerto Rico.
Out of this intense forced mixing of cultures, what forms of identity emerged and continue to emerge? Is there such a thing as a Caribbean culture, or are identities complex amalgams that defy easy categorizations such as Caribbean, Dominican American, creole Martinican, Afro-Cuban, East-Indian Trinidadian? What are the factors that make the identities of each island's peoples similar and in what ways do they defy categorization--even on a single island? How have cultural movements such as
and the "New World baroque" contributed to the construction of Caribbean identities and post-colonial consciousness? These will be the questions at the center of this program. We will begin with an exploration of the colonial legacy with close attention to the political and economic forms central to extracting sugar profits from land and laborers. We will explore the impact of diverse political statuses such as independence (e.g., Jamaica), complete incorporation with the motherland (Martinique) and more nebulous forms in between (Puerto Rico). We will explore the symbioses and tensions between these political and economic issues and cultural movements. Finally, we will investigate how migration and globalization continue to play a major role in shaping local realities. Throughout the quarter, we will examine our own positionality with relation to these questions, asking: How can we study about, learn from, and engage across cultural differences in non-dominating ways?
Readings will range from fiction and poetry to history and political-economic analysis. In addition to shared readings, lectures and films, each student will engage in synthesis work and a small project. The latter will be on a topic of the student's choosing, such as cultural expression through music and art, political status, religious syncretism, post-colonial literature, globalization, or migrant identities abroad.

This China studies program will take an in-depth look at modern China through the perspective of the social sciences, building on readings and issues discussed in the fall program
However, any student with an interest in China or East Asian studies should be able to join the program in winter or spring quarter and succeed in their studies.
Our overriding goals are to understand today's China as a vital global power, while critically exploring the lingering influence of its rich yet strife-torn cultural past on behavior and decisions made at the national, institutional and individual levels. Building on our shared texts and themes, students will do independent research individually or in small groups, becoming experts in a particular facet of Chinese business, economy. society and/or sustainability. Our work will also extend beyond uniquely Chinese experiences into topics on which the future of Asia, the global economy and our small planet depend, including the natural environment, paths to ecological, social and economic sustainability and strategies to redress economic inequalities and social dislocations. China's environmental history, its rural-urban dynamic and its economic development will also serve as core threads through both quarters of study.
During winter quarter, we will study ancient Chinese texts (in translation), as well as popular and academic articles, books, films and documentaries on China, particularly those exploring and reinterpreting ancient themes. Chinese philosophy, comprised of the primary "Three Teachings" of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism, will inform our study of Chinese culture. Sun Tzu's
will introduce us to one of the world's oldest sources of strategic thought and Chinese concepts of leadership. Other topics likely to be covered include China’s trade and travel with the outside world, the Chinese diaspora, China's contact and interactions with foreign powers and its industrialization and political transformations from an imperial dynasty to a republic to a Communist state.
Spring quarter we will focus on present-day China. We will examine China's current image as a dynamic economic powerhouse and “global factory” and as an enigmatic political player internationally. We will also look at its internal, problematic quests for domestic harmony, a well-functioning legal system and a truly civil society.In both quarters, we will meet in seminar, workshop and lecture settings. Weekly readings from books, popular media (newspapers, magazines) and academic journal articles should be expected for seminar and workshop. A peer-review approach will be taken in a Writing and Research Workshop to complement individual or small-group efforts on their research projects. Regular film and documentary viewings will build a closer familiarity with Chinese culture and society. Finally, in spring quarter, students will make an individual presentation on a book they have read and critically reviewed on their own. Another student completing the same reading will provide feedback on the presentation based on their reading of the book. This should expand the range of perspectives covered beyond the readings assigned to the entire class.Separate enrollment in Chinese language courses is strongly encouraged as a complement to this program. This program would also serve as good preparation for students who plan to travel to China via independent learning contracts or subsequent study abroad programs.

This interdisciplinary program offers comparative study of the Russian conquest of northern Eurasia (Siberia) and the Euro-American conquest of North America. It will explore the impact of what environmental historian Alfred Crosby calls "ecological imperialism" on native populations, economic development of the nations based on the exploitation of natural and agricultural resources, the ecological consequences of this exploitation, and the successes and failures of conservation efforts in Russia east of the Urals and in the United States west of the Mississippi. It will also consider the religious, economic, and social motivations and apologias for the ecological conquests. During the winter quarter, the program will examine these two world historical examples of ecological expansion and its consequences from 1600-1900; during the spring quarter, the program will explore the course and legacy of these conquests in the twentieth century as well as the current ecological state of these two continent-wide environments. Students can expect to read and write about bio-geographical, environmental-historical, ethnographic, natural historical, demographic, and political economic texts focusing on the western United States and on northern Eurasia. Personal and fictional accounts as well as films will also be used to enhance understanding of the environmental, economic, and social consequences of conquest. During the spring quarter, students can also expect to research and write short environmental histories of local areas in Western Washington. Credit will largely be in environmental history, bio-geography, and political economy.

In , the historian William Leach writes, “Whoever has the power to project a vision of the good life and make it prevail has the most decisive power of all.” Since the early 20th century, the pleasures of consumption have dominated prevailing visions of the good life in the United States. Innovations in mass production and mass media went hand in hand to link pleasure and prosperity with acquiring the latest commodities. Leisure has also been central to those pleasures, often in the form of tourism, fashion and entertainment, as people consume not only goods but experiences and ideas about what it means to be successful and happy. This program is an inquiry into these features of American consumer culture, particularly the values of convenience and authenticity that characterize the objects and desires it produces and exchanges.Students in this program will study the history and logic of U.S. consumer culture. We will consider the forces that have shaped each of us into consumers in this capitalist society, from representation and ideology to material and technological development. Sustainability will be a critical lens for our inquiry, as we consider the raw materials, labor and waste streams inherent in goods and in cultural experiences. Life cycle analysis of objects—from their origins in nature to their presence on retail shelves, personal spaces, garbage bins and landfills—will help us build a broader context for understanding the materiality with which we all engage every day.Our historical arc will be sweeping: from hunter-gatherers nearly two million years ago, to the origins of animal and plant domestication, to the formation of colonial settlements which created unprecedented challenges and opportunities, to the modern era. We will explore the patterns of resource use, social inequality and relative sustainability. We will examine how habits of conservation, thrift and re-use that were endemic to pre-modern societies transformed in tandem with the unprecedented energies of industrialization. We will investigate the theory and economics of post-industrial capitalism to better understand the impact of new media and technologies on the ways we produce and consume in the present day. We will also examine how curiosity about foreign and mysterious cultures in the context of globalization paved the way for tourism in which cultural authenticity is a central attraction. We will study the relationship between consumption and sustainability, pursuit of the good life through self-help and imported cultural practices such as yoga and meditation, between entertainment industries and communication networks, advertising and buying habits, spending money and self-worth. These contexts will enable us to destabilize and interrogate notions of what feels "normal" in the ways we engage as consumers today, including as consumers of knowledge in increasingly digitized institutions of higher education.Students will have the opportunity to examine ingrained routines of daily life, become conscious of the origins and meanings of their own habits and desires, and thereby become critical thinkers and actors in consumer culture. Our activities will include reading, writing papers and participating in seminar discussions on program topics, learning ethnographic research methods, experimenting with multimodal and collaborative work, viewing relevant films and participating in field trips. In fall quarter, we will build foundational skills and introduce key concepts and themes; winter quarter students will begin to develop their own research agenda; and in spring quarter, they can apply theory to practice in research and/or community-based projects. Spring quarter readings emphasize responses to consumer culture through alternative practices and collectives. Texts on on intentional communities include by Juliet Schor, by Karen Litfin,
, and . Texts on virtual communities include by Fred Turner, by Lawrence Lessig, and selections from the anthology Digital Labor. These and related topics comprise an 8 credit academic block taught on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Students enrolling for 16 credits should be prepared to engage in substantial independent learning or work in the community (faculty can structure or guide this piece for new students). One option is a media production intensive that includes a series of technical workshops and a collaborative project. Program learning activities include: seminar responses and essay assignments, field trips, digital media workshops, yoga and awareness practices. Field trips may include Procession of the Species, visits to Fertile Ground, NW Ecobuilders Guild, the Arbutus School, and intentional communities in the PNW, and/or a tour of tiny homes.

This program will take a critical look at controversial issues in the criminal justice system, including police misconduct and interrogation, mandatory minimum sentencing, decriminalization of marijuana and prostitution, needle exchange programs, the insanity defense, children tried as adults, privatization of prisons, and physician-assisted suicide. It will be taught via the Internet through a virtual learning environment (Moodle or Canvas), a chat room for live webinars, and e-mail. A one-time face-to-face orientation will take place 7:00 to 9:30 pm on Monday, June 23. Contact instructor for alternate arrangements for the orientation.

The processes of economic and political globalization reshape and undermine the lives of people and communities throughout the world. Some anthropologists have turned their attention to the effects of globalization on traditional and modern societies, attempting to bring to light the full complexities and consequences of these transnational practices. For example, Joao Biehl develops an argument linking global economic activity in Brazil to what he calls the development of "zones of social abandonment" in most urban settings. Anthropologists conduct their studies through
research, which involves gathering data, over long periods of time, as both "participant" and "observer" of those they are studying. Doing ethnographic research is simultaneously analytical and deeply embodied. This program includes an examination of ethnographic research methods and methodologies, a study of varied theoretical frameworks used by anthropologists today to interpret and find meaning in data, and an opportunity to design an ethnographic project of interest. Students will read and explore a range of ethnographic studies that reveal what an anthropologist—whom Ruth Behar calls a "vulnerable observer"—can uncover about the lives of people today, and advocate on their behalf.

The outcome of current social and economic problems will shape the future for us all. This program focuses on analyzing these problems and developing skills to contribute to debates and effective action in the public sphere. We will address major contemporary issues such as national and global poverty and economic inequality, immigration, incarceration, climate change, and war. U.S. economic and social problems will be placed in a global context. We will draw on sociology, political science, economics and political economy for our analysis, with particular attention to dimensions of class, race, gender, and global inequalities.We will analyze the mainstream and alternative media coverage of current issues and of the social movements dealing with them. We will build our analyses using data-driven descriptions, narratives of those directly affected, and theories that place issues in larger social and historical contexts. Students will be introduced to competing theoretical frameworks for explaining the causes of social problems and their potential solutions (frameworks such as neoclassical economics, liberalism, Marxism, feminism, and anarchism). We will study how social movements have actively addressed the problems and investigate their short- and long-term proposals and solutions as well as how they would be addressed in alternative economic and social systems.We will choose the specific issues to be investigated in the program as spring 2014 approaches, so that our study will be as relevant as possible. For each topic examined, we will combine readings with lectures, films, and workshops, along with guest speakers and possible field trips as appropriate to observe problems and responses first hand.Students will write short papers on each of the social problems we analyze. In addition, you will study in more depth and report on one of the economic or social issues we are studying.

How are organizations managed? What skills and abilities are needed? Organizations, fail or succeed according to their ability to adapt to fluid legal, cultural, political and economic realities. The management of organizations will play a seminal role in this program, where the primary focus will be on business and economic development. Management is a highly interdisciplinary profession where generalized, connected knowledge plays a critical role. Knowledge of the liberal arts/humanities or of technological advances may be as vital as skill development in finance, law, organizational dynamics or the latest management theory. An effective leader/manager must have the ability to read, comprehend, contextualize and interpret the flow of events impacting the organization. Communication skills, critical reasoning, quantitative (financial) analysis and the ability to research, sort out, comprehend and digest voluminous amounts of material characterize the far-thinking and effective organizational leader/manager.This program will explore the essentials of for-profit and non-profit business development through the study of classical economics, free market principles, economic development and basic business principles. Selected seminar readings will trace the evolution of free market thinking in our own Democratic Republic. Critical reasoning will be a significant focus in order to explicate certain economic principles and their application to the business environment. You will be introduced to the tools, skills and concepts you need to develop strategies for navigating your organization in an ever-changing environment. Class work will include lectures, book seminars, projects, case studies, leadership, team building and financial analysis. Expect to read a lot, study hard and be challenged to think clearly, logically and often.
Texts will include
by Thomas Zimmerer
by Thomas Sowell,
by M. Neil Browne and Stuart Keeley, and
by John A. Tracy. A stout list of seminar books will include
,
by Hayek,
by Thomas Paine and
by DeToqueville.
In fall quarter, we will establish a foundation in economics, business, critical reasoning and the history of business development in the United StatesWinter quarter will emphasize real life economic circumstances impacting organizations. You will engage in discussions with practitioners in businesses and various other private sector and government organizations. You will be actively involved in research and project work with some of these organizations and it will provide an opportunity to investigate and design exciting internships for the spring quarter.In spring quarter, the emphasis will be on individual projects or internships. Continuing students will design their own curriculum. This will require students to take full responsibility for their learning, including a bibliography, the design of the syllabus, and learning schedule. The faculty sponsor merely acts as an educational manager and not as a tutor. In-program internships provide a different opportunity to apply prior learning but in this case, with the intent of developing applied skills and people skills rather than focusing solely on advanced study or research.

This program will examine the movement of the North American colonies in their separation from Britain to the emergence of the United States through the election of 1800. It will investigate the conflict, including social, racial and class divisions, and the distinctly different visions of the proper social, economic, and political system that should predominate in the new nation. Much conflict surrounded the separation of the settler colonies from Britain, including a transatlantic revolutionary movement, development of slave-based plantations and the birth of capitalism. Capitalism was not a foregone conclusion. We will study this process and pay close attention to the Articles of Confederation and the framing of the Constitution; in addition, we will investigate the federalist and anti-federalist debates surrounding the new framework, its ratification, and the political-economic relations accompanying the move from one governing structure to the other. This program will require close and careful reading, engaged seminar participation and considered, well-grounded writing. Enrolling students are expected to have completed some college-level work in the social sciences and history.

The United Nations has declared the access to affordable, clean water to be a human right. Yet around the world billions of people cannot exercise this right. In addition, people in the developing world often face challenges of drought, floods, and degradation of aquatic ecosystem services. This class explores the challenges of water in developing countries, emerging issues, and potential solutions. Issues to be explored include Integrated Water Resource Management, governance, privatization, gender equality, social justice, climate change, water security, and appropriate technology.Graduate students (4 credits) and undergraduate students (2 credits) will explore these topics during the first session. Undergraduate and graduate students will participate in the weekly classroom sessions, read from weekly assignments, and do a research project which will include a final paper and presentation. Graduate students will also write weekly assignments on the readings, and will do a more in-depth, graduate-level research topic with a more extensive final paper.
, has worked in water resources engineering for over three decades. His career focus has been on water quality, hydrology, water supply, watershed functions, and climate change. He received a Bachelor of Science in Renewable Natural Resources from the University of California at Davis in 1984, and a Masters of Engineering in Environmental Civil Engineering from U.C. Davis in 1989. Since 1988 he’s worked for the Washington Department of Ecology as an environmental engineer. From 2001 through 2012 he served as an elected Commissioner for the Thurston Public Utility District, a water utility with about 3,000 customers in five counties. He has taught at Evergreen since 2009, and also occasionally writes feature articles for local publications. He lives with his wife on acreage in rural Thurston County, along with cats, chickens, blueberries, fruit trees, noxious weeds, and mud.

By the time the First World War broke out in 1914, the imperial powers of modern Europe had radically transformed the vast majority of the societies of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas. Religious, scientific and discursive practices that legitimized colonial aspirations facilitated colonial rule imposed through military conquests, political subjugation and the exploitation of human and natural resources. How did the experiences of imperialism affect colonized societies? What effects did imperialism have on the imperialists themselves? What lasting effects of imperial subjugation continue to impact relations between the former colonial powers and postcolonial states in the 21st century?We are interested in unpacking the discursive practices of both the colonial past and the neo-colonial present. Through our study of history, literature and political economy, we will examine the ways in which European ideologies, traditions and scientific knowledge legitimized the formation of empire and continue to re-inscribe asymmetrical relations of power today under the guise of modernity, progress and global economic development.We will explore these issues through readings, lectures, films, as well as weekly papers, a well-developed research paper, and a presentation of that paper's findings to the class.

This Individual Learning Contract can be a specific in-depth topic or an internship that the student has already researched and begun to get approval from an outside agency. A group of students can also work together and develop a reading list and timetable for completion of a group project. Students can also contact Evergreen's Center for Community-Based Learning and Action for projects that may fit into the parameters of this description. Students should contact the faculty before the fall of 2013. The best time to contact the faculty is at the Academic Fair in spring 2013. Students interested in a self-directed project, research or internship in political economy or political science should contact the faculty by email at .

Individual studies offers important opportunities for advanced students to create their own course of study and research. Prior to the beginning of the quarter, interested individuals or small groups of students must consult with the faculty sponsor to develop an outline of proposed projects to be described in an Individual Learning Contract. If students wish to gain internship experience they must secure the agreement and signature of a field supervisor prior to the initiation of the internship contract.This faculty welcomes internships and contracts in the areas of the arts (including acrylic and oil painting, sculpture, or textiles); water policy and hydrolic systems; environmental health; health policy; public law; cultural studies; ethnic studies; permaculture, economics of agriculture; toxins and brownfields; community planning, intranational relations.This opportunity is open to those who wish to continue with applied projects that seek to create social change in our community; artists engaged in creative projects and those begining internship work at the State capitol who seek to expand their experience to public agencies and non-profit institutions; and to those interested in the study of low income populations and legal aid.

This program is designed to serve as a foundation for advanced programs in Environmental Studies. It will survey a range of disciplines and skills essential for environmental problem solving from both a scientific and social science perspective. Specifically, we will study ecological principles and methods, aquatic ecology, methods of analysis in environmental studies, the political and economic history of environmental policy making in the United States, micro-economics and political science. This information will be used to analyze current issues and topics in environmental studies.In fall quarter, we will study ecology with a focus on aquatic systems. We will examine the major physical and chemical characteristics of aquatic environments, the organisms that live in these environments and the factors controlling the species diversity, distribution and growth of aquatic and terrestrial organisms. These scientific issues will be grounded in the context of politics, economics and public policy. During fall quarter we will examine, from the founding era to the present, how the values of democracy and capitalism influence resource management, the scope and limitations of governmental policymaking, regulatory agencies and environmental law. Understanding the different levels (federal, state, local) of governmental responsibility for environmental protection will be explored in depth. Field trips and case studies will offer opportunities to see how science and policy interact in environmental issues. During fall quarter, we will develop an introduction to research design, quantitative reasoning and statistics.In winter, the focus will shift to a more global scale. We will examine in depth several major challenges for the early 21st century; forest and fish resources, global warming and marine pollution. These are three related topics that require an understanding of the science, politics and economics of each issue and how they interact with one another. Globalism, political and economic development and political unrest and uncertainty will be discussed within each topic as well as how these macro-level problems overlap one another. During winter quarter, micro-economics will be studied as a problem solving tool for environmental issues as well as an introduction to environmental economic analysis.The material will be presented through lectures, seminars, labs, field trips/field work and quantitative methods (statistics) and economics workshops. Labs and field trips will examine the organisms that live in aquatic systems, measure water quality and study local terrestrial habitats. Quantitative methods workshops will present the use of computers to organize and analyze data. Microeconomic principles and methods will provide the foundation for environmental economic analysis.

We will begin with a short, intensive study of Marx's early work and selections from
, vol. 1 and track the themes raised there in a number of political-theoretical, literary-critical, and philosophical schools of thought, as well as reading a number of literary works that instantiate, provide materials for, or challenge these approaches. Our theoretical texts may be from Lukács, Bloch, Benjamin, Adorno, Althusser, Raymond Williams, Žižek, and Jameson, and our literary texts might include Flaubert, Melville, Poe, Sebald, and Kluge.

.—Theodor Adorno,
How and why do we think about “modernity”? What do we mean when we say we are thinking about it? This program will largely be an investigation of modernity as it appears in and behind those discourses produced by and about its forces. These are questions that will lead us primarily into the realms of philosophy, political theory and political economy, sociology and literature.Along the way, we will try on a number of definitions of and arguments about what constitutes modernity, both in the sense of its causes and effects as well as its historical extension. Here are some of the questions we might ask:This program is designed for upper-division students interested in developing and refining their ability to work with complex historical texts and important ideas. An important part of our work will be to help one another develop the skills needed through seminar conversations, close reading sessions, writing workshops and individual and group projects and presentations. We will offer a 14-credit option to students of foreign language.

Pacific Northwest History introduces multicultural aspects of historical developments of this region. A primary learning objective is for students to be able to articulate through concrete historical examples how liberty and justice has been interpreted and applied in the Northwest. With texts that provide accessible historical accounts, students will be exposed to Native American Indian perspectives on the eventual occupation of their lands by European imperialists, the origins and outcomes of competition among Europeans for the Pacific Northwest, and challenges placed on non-European ethnic groups – such as Chinese Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Japanese Americans – during the 19 and 20 centuries and into the 21 century. Attention to the experiences of women in making this history is included. The local historical development of Tacoma is used to highlight the role of capitalism in creating governing bodies and class differences among white European Americans who collectively discriminated against the aspirations of people of color.Pacific Northwest History also meets a teacher education endorsement requirement for elementary education, middle-level humanities, social studies, and history.
Films and other course material periodically describe and present images of violence and use language that may be considered offensive. The purpose of this material is to present significant events within their respective historical contexts.

In this program students will investigate how political events are constructed and reported in the media, compared to actual political and economic realities. By media we mean mainstream periodicals, television, radio and films and emerging social media. We also include the growth of Internet blogs, websites, independent media and other media outlets in the 21st century. We will take a historical approach that focuses on U.S. history from the colonial era to contemporary globalization. We will compare corporate media concentration of ownership to community-controlled media and social media. We will examine how issues surrounding race, class and gender are perceived by the media and subsequently by the public.
During winter quarter, students will receive a theoretical and historical grounding in the political economy of the media. We will explore the question of who owns the media and what difference this makes to how stories are reported, framed, sourced or just ignored. Films, lectures and readings, along with text-based seminars, will compose the primary structures used by this learning community. Students will regularly engage in a critical reading of
and other media outlets. Also during the winter quarter, students will create a research proposal that includes an annotated bibliography. Research projects may either be traditional research papers or equivalent projects determined in collaboration with the faculty, such as an independent media blog or website.
During spring quarter, students will devote approximately half of the program time to completing their proposed projects and presenting the results of their research. The remaining program time will focus more in-depth on program themes as we examine contemporary issues through a variety of sources.

Throughout U.S. history, people have politically contested the nature and purposes of elementary and secondary education for children and youth. This program will analyze these competing perspectives on public education and the political and economic contexts in which schools exist. Therefore, we will examine public education and schools both broadly, using a macro social, political and economic lens, and narrowly, using a micro, school-level lens.Schools are a human invention with a history. As such, schools change form and adapt in response to social and political pressures. We will examine the significant political, economic and social tensions on what the term “public” in public education means. We will analyze historical patterns of U.S. schooling from political and economic perspectives. This inquiry covers the locally controlled, Protestant Christian origins of public education and its effects on our contemporary, multicultural environment. We also investigate the political and economic debates surrounding the expectations for public education to measure accountability by means of high-stakes standardized tests.At the micro level we will analyze the school as a formal institution that functions to socialize groups of children and youth into specific behaviors and roles. This school-level lens examines this socializing process by primarily focusing on the demographic characteristics of the people who make up the power structures of public schools and the dynamics of their interactions.In a collaborative learning community environment, students will gain experience in engaging in dialogue through a close reading of texts. Among the writing assignments students will have, they will have opportunities to engage in writing short but focused analytic essays. Students can expect to leave this program having developed the analytical reading and writing skills to participate in the current political and economic debates about the purposes of public education, informed by the historical patterns that have created the present climate.

The recent history of Latin America can be described as a struggle for self-determination, from the wars of independence to the present-day unequal footing in the world economic system. Taking Mexico as a case study, we will explore how questions of self-determination have shaped Latin America and the lives of the various communities that constitute the region. We will focus, in particular, on the different roles that culture, politics, and economics have played in struggles for self-determination and investigate the tensions and symbioses between them. We will ask ourselves: What roles do culture and economics play as tools of self-determination? How can culture facilitate processes of self-determination at moments when political or economic self-determination is not possible? What are the limitations on the use of culture when one has limited political and economic self-determination? What role do third parties play in struggles for self-determination and how do we situate ourselves with regards to various processes of self-determination in Latin America?Our study of various groups and communities within Mexico and across its borders to the north and to the south will illuminate the country’s diversity, while also highlighting the connections between personal, national, and regional politics in Latin America. We will explore how self-determination is manifested in relationships of class, gender and ethnicity and study the specific ways in which struggles for self-determination have emerged in Mexico from the nineteenth century to the present. We will focus on various historical moments and issues including nation-building efforts and conflicts with the United States in the nineteenth century; issues of violence and class during the Mexican Revolution; contradictory uses of Indigenismo; popular movements and state repression in the 1960s and 70s; the emergence of the Zapatista movement; the economic impact of NAFTA; and questions of economic development and cultural identity during recent migrations to the United States.Throughout the quarter, we will engage historical and contemporary realities in Mexico using multiple frameworks from the humanities and the social sciences. In the process, we will introduce literary and cultural theory, as well as economic theories of capitalist development. Students will gain an in-depth ability to interpret literary texts in their social contexts, and to use economic models to understand specific aspects of Latin American societies. This program will involve frequent writing assignments and develop skills in visual analysis.

There are
of poor people in the world today, and even more who have limited access to health care, education and political and cultural opportunities. The word commonly used to refer to the process of economic growth and the expansion of opportunity is development—but there is enormous disagreement over how this word should be understood or even whether it should be used at all. This program will examine development on multiple levels: historical, philosophical, political and economic. It will place the quest for development in the context of European colonial expansion, military conflict and the tension between competing cultural frameworks. In doing this, it will combine “outside” views of development, as seen by administrators and experts, with the “inside” views of people who are most directly affected by development and its absence. At the same time, there will be a strong push toward usable knowledge: learning the skills that are essential for people who work in the field of development and want to make a dent in this radically unequal world.
Economics will be an important contributor to our knowledge base; the program will offer introductory-level micro- and macroeconomics, with examples drawn from the development experience. Just as important is statistics, since quantitative methods have become indispensable in development work. We will learn about survey methodology and techniques used to analyze data. Another basis for this program is the belief that economics, politics and lived experience are inseparable. Just as quantitative techniques are used to shed light on people’s experiences, their own voices are essential for making sense of the numbers and can sometimes overrule them altogether. We will read literature that expresses the perspective of writers from non-Western countries, view films and consider other forms of testimony. The goal is to see the world, as much as possible, through their eyes as well as ours.Spring quarter will be devoted primarily to research. It will begin with a short, intensive training in research methods, based on the strategy of deeply analyzing a few papers to see how their authors researched and wrote them. After this, depending on the skills and interests of students, an effort will be made to place them as assistants to professional researchers or, if they prefer, they can pursue their own projects. We will meet as a group periodically to discuss emerging trends in development research and practice, as well as to help each other cope with the difficulties in our own work. By the end of three quarters, students should be prepared for internships or further professional studies in this field.

We are surrounded with problems that aren't going away; problems that cannot be solved by individuals acting alone. At the same time, a variety of powerful barriers often stand in the way of working together successfully. And all too frequently, the institutions that are supposed to help in these matters seem either oppositional or ineffectual.How can we develop and nurture the "civic intelligence" that will help ensure our actions produce the best outcomes? What sorts of creative and, often courageous, actions, events, policies, and institutions are people devising to help meet these challenges? And how can these add up to more widespread and enduring social change? As John Robinson of UBC's Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability stated, "If we can't imagine a better world, we won't get it."Social innovation helps us to create and ponder possible futures. Civic intelligence is an evolving, cross-disciplinary perspective that examines, proposes, initiates, and evaluates collective capacity for the common good. It builds on concepts from sociology and other social sciences but also intersects with most — or all — of the other disciplines including the hard sciences, education, cognitive science, the media, and the humanities. In this three quarter program we will focus our efforts — both reflective and action-oriented — on the theory and practice of social innovation and civic intelligence in which "ordinary" people begin to assume greater power and responsibility for creating a future that is more responsive to the needs of people and the planet. Throughout the program we will gain understanding and skills through collaborative projects, workshops, films, experiments, games, and group processes. All quarters will include theoretical readings and workshops. Spring quarter will also involve student projects with the goal of effecting real-world change.Students will help determine the topics for winter and spring, which may include deliberation, alternative economics, collective memory, cooperation, media, participatory design, inequality, or war and peace.Students registering for 12 credits will be working within CIRAL, the Civic Intelligence Research Action Laboratory, for 4 of their credits. CIRAL is designed to help support ongoing, student-led, collaborative projects. It is intended to foster sustained and engaged relationships with groups, organizations, movements, and institutions. In addition to our regular meetings, these students will meet each Wednesday before class from 4:30 to 6:00.

This program will explore the role that sport plays in contemporary North American culture. It is a social phenomenon that provides opportunities for identity formation and personal development as well as for learning values about work, play, entertainment, and family. Sport is one of many arenas that reflect our society’s contestation surrounding race, class, gender, and sexual orientation.The program will examine sport from multiple perspectives and genres. Through a close reading of sports literature, including informational texts, stories, poetry, film, journalism, and other media, we will explore the following social theories that offer various frameworks in which to study sport in society: Functionalist theory, conflict theory, interactionist theory, critical theory, and feminist theory.Functionalist theory seeks to answer questions such as: How does sport fit into social life and contribute to social stability and efficiency? How does sport participation teach people important norms in society? Conflict theory seeks to answer questions such as: How does sport reflect class relations? How is sport used to maintain the interests of those with power and wealth in society? How does the profit motive distort sport and sport experiences? Interactionist theory seeks to answer questions such as: How do people become involved in sports, become defined as athletes, derive meaning from participation, and make transitions out of sports into the rest of their lives? Critical theory seeks to answer questions such as: How are power relations reproduced and/or resisted in and through sports? Whose voices are/are not represented in the narratives and images that constitute sports? Feminist theory seeks to answer questions such as: How are sports gendered activities, and how do they reproduce dominant ideas about gender in society? What are the strategies for resisting and transforming sport forms that privilege men?Above all, sport offers a way to engage larger social issues in contemporary American culture. Some would argue sport personifies the American Dream through personal stories of sports champions, both in their accomplishments and in the barriers that they overcome. Sports champions and sports teams also produced sports fans, people who are fanatically loyal to those athletes and teams they cherish.The primary objective in the program is for students to develop a greater sensitivity to the world of sport and the philosophical and sociological relationship between that world and contemporary society. Students will have opportunities to write personal narrative and critical analysis and produce in-depth research on a particular, self-selected sport sociology topic.

This Student-Originated Studies program is intended for upper-level students with a background in community-based learning, and who have made arrangements to carry out a yearlong focused project within an organized community center, workshop, agency, organization or school setting. Community projects are to be carried out through internships, mentoring situations or apprenticeships that support students’ interest in community development. This program also includes a required weekly program meeting on campus that will facilitate a shared, supportive learning experience and weekly progress journal writing. The program is connected to Evergreen's Center for Community-Based Learning and Action (CCBLA), which supports learning about, engaging with and contributing to community life in the region. As such, this program benefits by the rich resource library, staff, internship suggestions and workshops offered through the Center. Students in this program will further their understanding of the concept of “community” as they engage their internship, apprenticeship or mentoring situation. The program emphasizes an asset-based model of community understanding advanced by Kretzmann and McKnight (1993). A variety of short readings from that text will become part of the weekly campus meetings. The range of academic/community work suited to this program includes: working in an official capacity as an intern with defined duties at a community agency, organization or school; working with one or more community members (elders, mentors, artists, teachers, skilled laborers, community organizers) to learn about a special line of work or skills that enriches the community as a whole; or designing a community action plan or case study aimed at problem solving a particular community challenge or need. A combination of internship and academic credit will be awarded in this program. Students may arrange an internship up to 36 hours a week for a 12-credit internship per quarter. Four academic credits will be awarded each quarter for seminar attendance and weekly progress journal writing. Students may distribute their program credits to include less than 12 credits of internship when accompanying research, reading and writing credits associated with their community work are included.
During the academic year, students are required to meet as a whole group in a weekly seminar on Wednesday mornings to share successes and challenges, discuss the larger context of their projects in terms of community asset building and well-being, and discuss occasional assigned short readings that illuminate the essence of community. Students will also organize small interest/support groups to discuss issues related to their specific projects and to collaborate on a presentation at the end of each quarter. Students will submit weekly written progress/reflection reports via forums established on the program Moodle site. Contact faculty member Stephanie Kozick
if further information is needed.

The Tar Sands of Alberta's Oil fields and the gasoline-like crude from North Dakota's Bakken region are headed this way in 100 car unit trains called “virtual pipelines.” Plans call for expanded rail receiving facilities at all five refineries in Washington state, as well as new oil train-to-marine transfer terminals at the Ports of Vancouver and Grays Harbor. These plans are the subject of major controversy in this state. Recent derailments and disastrous explosions have caught the public eye and mobilized labor and environmental communities. We will look at what this new oil is; how it's changing the dynamics of US oil dependency, as well as the nature of rail transportation in the NW. We'll visit ports and refineries, read primary documents, chart train traffic, talk to proponents, opponents and regulators and develop our own analysis of what should be done.

Political economy asks basic but often overlooked questions: who has what, who does what work, why, how it got to be that way and how to change it. Given this starting point, what do some of the most basic and everyday things around us look like through the lens of political economy? How could we better understand our food system, popular culture and social movements using this interdisciplinary set of questions and perspectives? For example, we'll look at how apples are grown and harvested,
, and what's grown out of the Occupy Movement, each as its own window into the way the economic system we were born into works, and how people just like us are responding to it and trying to remake the world. Through these explorations of food systems, popular culture and social movements, we will get a better understanding of the ways in which society itself becomes hierarchical and divided by race, class, gender and sexuality.
In fall quarter, our guiding question will ask how capitalism evolved and came to be the way it is. How did relationships based on food, popular culture and social movements influence and become influenced by the emergence, development and concrete workings of U.S. political economy in the 20
century? In tandem with the evolution of the capitalist system, we will examine competing historical visions of political economy put forth by indigenous struggles, immigrant struggles, anti-slavery struggles, the feminist movement, the labor movement. At the same time, we will emphasize the lives of exploited and marginalized people as they encountered capitalism as an economic system. Through this work we will work to become better readers of our texts and of the world.
In winter quarter, we will examine the interrelationship between the U.S. political economy and the changing global system, as well as U.S. foreign policy. We will study the causes and consequences of the globalization of capital and its effects on our daily lives, international migration, the role of multilateral institutions and the meaning of various trade agreements and regional organizations and alliances. We will look at the impact of the global order on our food system and explore the politics of culture, as people negotiate and contest new emerging regimes of labor, property and citizenship. Through protests, revolutions and riots, social movements continue to raise core questions regarding democracy, power, equality and the relationship between citizens, the state and the global economy, providing fruitful alternative analytical perspectives for the study of capitalist globalization and transnational networks. This quarter's work will allow us to deepen and strengthen our analytical skills.In spring, we will focus our efforts to learn from diverse, community-based institutions that offer us alternative visions of how to organize social and economic activity, in accordance with the basic principles of human rights, ethical labor practices and cooperative work and decision-making, through processes that respect the integrity of our environment and ecology. Working in conjunction with Evergreen's Center for Community-Based Learning and Action, schools, advocacy groups, veteran's rights groups and other nonprofit organizations, students are invited to examine strategies put forward by popular education models, immigrant rights advocates, gay/lesbian/transgender advocates and community-based economic models. In our last quarter, we will work to further develop our communication skills, organization and accountability.

This course challenges students to write the world that does not yet exist. Or, as poet and theorist of radical black performance Fred Moten does, we will try to engage in writing that "investigates new ways for people to get together and do stuff in the open, in secret." Each week we’ll work individually and collaboratively on writing experiments—prose, poetry, essay—that critique and advance beyond our own assumptions about what is socially possible or probable and that do so by paying careful attention to the rhythms of current crises. As a basis for this creative production, we will engage critically with writers whose work exists at the point where the border between politics and art ruptures. In sound, in sight, and through a kind of "improvisatory ensemble" (as Moten puts it) we will resist what too often gets counted as the inevitable outcome of a political economy that treats people as objects that just happen to speak. What is inevitable about the future, and what is it about controlled acts of creative improvisation that helps us not just "guess at" but hear our future’s past?